bottle to bottle difference

[yeoldebrewer]

I'm drinking a batch of AHS Amber Ale brewed on Oct. 22, racked to secondary for about two weeks and bottled on Nov. 13. Bottles have carbed at 67-71 deg.
I did a pretty sloppy job of siphoning to secondary, so oxidation and transfer of trub may be an issue.

My palate may be playing tricks on me, but I could swear some bottles taste better than others. The best are clean tasting, with some caramel sweetness balanced by hop bite. The others are still very drinkable, but have a slight cidery or extract twang taste (for lack of a better desc.).

I should note that about half the bottling was done in 22 oz. long necks and the rest in 12 's.

Anyone heard of this before?

 

[homebrewer_99]

I could be wrong, but IMHO I think you bottled too soon.

Your brew, and almost every other brew, improves with bulk aging prior to bottling.

 

[billtzk]

I think you bottled too soon too. If usually leave a beer it in primary two weeks, then I transfer to secondary for a month (minimum), then I bottle. So if I'd have brewed on 10/22, I'd transfer from primary to secondary on 11/5 or so. Then I would bottle no sooner than 12/3. I always bottle condition for six weeks before drinking (I might try a bottle at 4 weeks). That means I wouldn't normally be drinking something I brewed on 10/22 before about 1/14.

Your beer will be fine and more consistent if you leave it alone for another month to six weeks, I think. That's assuming you can resist drinking it that long.

 

[yeoldebrewer]

Thanks all for good advice. I could swear the bills come around faster than beer maturation dates.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Thanks all for good advice. I could swear the bills come around faster than beer maturation dates.

Welcome to the real world...

 

[yeoldebrewer]

Update: I know it's still early. But I just cracked another bottle of the AHS Amber Ale and it's definitely in the 'Good' category. This batch probably won't last to full maturation so I may have no choice but to brew another one.

 

[Righlander]

That's why It's good to brew as many batches as possible. That way you have so many batches going on that It's easy to let some age :fro:

 

[Homercidal]

I am not sure you bottled too early, but I bet if you can let it sit a bit longer, they will taste better. Did you mix the priming sugar with water and add to the whole mix, or did you add priming sugar to each bottle? That might explain something.

 

[yeoldebrewer]

This beer was batched primed by adding a dissolved corn sugar solution to the bottling bucket and then siphoning in the beer. The primed mixture was not stirred. Maybe this is a step I should add.

 

[BarleyWater]

This beer was batched primed by adding a dissolved corn sugar solution to the bottling bucket and then siphoning in the beer. The primed mixture was not stirred. Maybe this is a step I should add.

This is a step that definitely helped my uneven carbonation issues.

 

[Zguy]

So I'm REALLY new at this....haven't even gotten my equipment yet...but.... I found this Page that reminded me of the "cidery" taste you were talking about.

Maybe bottling too soon?